Birthday Boys

   October is male birthday month in our house.  Sam turned 8 and Chris hit the big 4-0!  The kids are gleefully calling him an "oldie" these days.  Thanks so much to those who braved the time difference and got in touch with Sam on his birthday.  He loved it!

   Sam has discovered a new sport to love - rugby.  He loves to watch it, play with his friends and is campaigning to play on a team in the fall autumn here.  The Rugby World Cup was recently held in New Zealand so Australia has been rugby-crazed for weeks, much to Sam's delight.  He pulled  barracked for the Wallabies but was nearly equally happy for the New Zealand All Blacks to win.  The All Blacks perform a haka, a traditional Maori war cry/dance/challenge, before each match which is great fun to watch.  To see one, click here.

Birthday boy with his favorite rugby team, the Manly Sea Eagles, beach towel.  To pronounce it like the Aussies do, just say Manly Seagulls. 

The boy and the oldie's best haka faces.

   Chris and I got to spend a night out and celebrated his 40th with dinner at a yummy, posh restaurant overlooking Circular Quay and the Opera House.  The food was great but riding the Mosman ferry across the harbour to dinner and back was almost as much fun.  On his birthday Chris got to endure an encounter with a swooping magpie bonking him on the head while cycling.  Chalk up another typical Australian experience!  We ended the birthday weekend with a visit from our next door neighbors in CH!  Unexpected but great to catch up!

Birthday banner by Mia

Photo by Sam

 

You Thought That One Was Big?

   Sydney has had its fair share of rainy weekends over the last several months so we made the most of this last one since the rain stayed away.  We headed north to the outer ranges of Sydney's suburbs to the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. This time we were allowed to enter since we left Jackson at home. 

    The park is bordered to its east by sparkly Pittwater, a gorgeous body of water that starts at Broken Bay and parallels the Pacific Ocean going south for about 10k.  The area is known for boating, bushwalking, wildlife and Aboriginal art sites.

Lion Island, named because the profile resembles an ancient Sphinx.

Broken Bay, where the Hawkesbury River meets the Pacific. Repeatedly, we've read that this area is known for sharks.  Got it! 

View from West Head Lookout, across Pittwater to Barrenjoey Head at the end of the Palm Beach Peninsula.  Back in March we hiked up to the Barrenjoey Lighthouse. 

Pittwater is known for its sailing communities.

   As we were taking in the sights, we noticed this goanna/lace monitor wandering around checking things out.  He was four feet long!  He didn't stick around too long so we were happy to have gotten to see him.  I'm all for seeing wildlife but I'm not sure I like the reptile trajectory that we seem to be on!

   A couple of quick bushwalks (hikes/walks) led us to ancient Aboriginal sites, thought to be about 2000 years old. 

Rock etchings depicting  men, fish, wallabies, etc.  This guy is actually holding a boomerang although it's barely visible here. 

Handprints made from ochre on  the side of sandstone cave walls.





New Neighbor

   We have recently been coming into contact with a neighbor next door who we hadn't previously seen.  She (we're guessing on gender) comes out to sun herself on the tennis court.  Jackson is obsessed with barking and growling at her.  Mia gets a bit freaked out.  Sam thinks she's "awesome."  Her favorite foods are snails and slugs, because they're slower than she is.  She's about 2 feet long, although she's missing part of her tail.  It will grow back.  She's a Blue Tongued Lizard. 

We've dubbed her Natalie, in honor of our next door neighbor at home who also frequently has a blue tongue...from popsicles!

Road trip - Part 2

   The east coast of Australia is roughly the same size as the US east coast, from Maine to Florida.  There is one main north-south highway and it is, unbelievably, frequently a narrow two lane road that winds through towns and gets backed up due to narrow bridges.  Our trek north took quite a while but we did enjoy the drive, the views and the roadside entertainments.

   After 4-5 hours, we were in need of a break and who could resist the Big Banana?  There are approximately 50 "Big Things" across Australia.  There's a Big Mango, a Big Koala, a Big Meat Pie.. you get the picture.  You can buy a Big Things map and find each one if you are so inclined.  The Big Banana is the most famous of all the big cement/fiberglass objects and I'm sure the best.  Where else can you buy bananas at the crazy, cheap price of $4.95 a kilo?  We did see the Big Prawn briefly on the way home but, sadly, that may be the end of our Big sightings in Oz.

Gotta have a frozen, chocolate covered banana with hundred and thousands (that's what they call sprinkles here)!

   Back in the car, we entertained ourselves with road signs.  Tons of places here have names consisting of an aboriginal word repeated twice.  We passed Wangi Wangi, Ghinni Ghinni, Woy Woy, Kundle Kundle, Tucki Tucki and my favorite, Booti Booti National Park.  Other amusing locations included Kangy Angy and Tunglebung.  Love the internet via iPhone!  We discovered that repeating words is an Aboriginal linguistic convention to denote more than one.  So, a place named Booti Booti is a place where there's lots of booti - whatever that is!

  We were constantly reminded about the need for caution due to wildlife.  Luckily, we did not harm anything.  Can you imagine hitting a koala?  (Or a Tasmanian Devil, Katie!!)  North of Coffs Harbour, we did start to see lots and lots of kangaroos in fields beside the roads.  So fun!  At one point as we drove down a shortcut, (AKA really narrow road with no lines and no speed limit signs), we saw a kangaroo coming straight towards us in the middle of the road, bouncing up and down.  A bit surreal.

   Our destination for the night was Byron Bay.  This place had a very lively feel to it!  Lots of people, quirky shops,  hippie/new-agey vibe, great food, just totally different from any small town we've been to or through here.  Think Carrboro or Asheville, throw in beautiful beaches and a surfing fixation and you get the idea.  After one night, we headed north a bit reluctantly, knowing it would have been fun to stick around a bit longer.

You never know when you might need some fire twirling equipment.

Sam thought it was "kinda weird that it has such a kid kind of name but only adults can go in there."

Cape Byron Lighthouse.  Cape Byron is the most easterly point in Australia.

The tallest one is called Mount Warning, named that to alert ships of nearby offshore reefs.

   Our next destination was Surfer's Paradise (yes, that's the cheesy name of the town) in an area of Queensland known as the Gold Coast.  Think Myrtle Beach on steroids.  This area gets panned for being uninteresting and overly commercial.  Agreed.  However, we used hotel points and stayed at a beautiful Marriott and enjoyed a couple of days of quiet sleeping, mostly nice weather and a great beach for the kids.  Worked for us.

The Q1 Tower is Australia's tallest building at 322 meters.  

The kids spent hours playing and snorkeling in the saltwater lagoon pool, hot tubs, waterslides, etc.

 Sam has abandoned surfing for boogie boarding, for now at least.

Mia has not and is looking forward to hitting the waves in Manly
 as much as possible this summer

Road Trip - Part 1

  We took off again over school holidays, on a road trip this time.  Our first stop was about 2 1/2 hours north of Sydney in an area known as Port Stephens.  The port is home to nearly 200 resident dolphins, tons of White Pelicans, koalas, and lots of other wildlife.  With the weather not fully cooperating, we took a boat across the port our first day to the small town of Tea Gardens.   Some of the dolphins were nice enough to cruise with us briefly.

Entertaining himself while waiting for the return ferry.

 
The evening weather improved and we checked out a few sites.  With the clouds still there but sun coming out, we knew this rainbow was coming and waited for it.  Worth it!

We're amazed by how often we see rainbows here.

We've seen these huge flowers in Sydney but they were abundant on the drive up and in Port Stephens.  They stand about 10-20 feet tall and are called Giant Gymea Lillies.  They look fairly prehistoric.

The bloom is about a foot across!

A couple of  new cockatoos were nice enough to pose for a few photos. 

The Little Corella

Galah Cockatoo.  These are easy to spot flying because you mostly see the pink bodies overhead.

We ended the first evening up at Gan Gan Lookout, with a fantastic 360 degree view.

We saved the best scenery for last.  Just before heading out of town to continue north up the coast, we climbed up to Tomaree Headland Lookout.  The weather had cleared up and we had clear views all around.

Hiking up through the gum trees.

 

   A little balance is necessary, right?  So, after all that beauty, here's what the "view" was from the front door to our room at the resort where we stayed.  To be fair, the room was clean and comfortable, but we were surprised that they didn't bother to obstruct the lovely neighboring grounds.

   Port Stephens surprised us in that, for a gorgeous area, only 2 1/2 hours from Sydney, during school holidays, it was actually quite sleepy.  The streets were nearly deserted when we ventured out to dinner both evenings.  Other small coastal towns in resort areas have felt this way to us as well.  But, we found a lively spot the next night....